Crowing Pains
Crowing Pains is a cartoon in the Looney Tunes series that was released in 1947. The cartoon, directed by Robert McKimson, stars Henery Hawk, Sylvester, and Foghorn Leghorn and The Barnyard Dawg, all of whom are voiced by Mel Blanc. It is also the first cartoon to feature more than two Looney Tunes characters since A Corny Concerto, and the only one to give Henery Hawk top billing, as originally issued. In addition, this is the only short in which Sylvester and Foghorn Leghorn share the screen together. This cartoon was long believed to be in the public domain, however, the cartoon was in fact renewed on August 5, 1974 by United Artists (which then owned the pre-1948 Merrie Melodies catalogue). It is featured, with opening titles restored, on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 6. As a result of the opening title restoration, this is the earliest Foghorn Leghorn cartoon to survive with its original technical credits intact, surpassing 1948's The Foghorn Leghorn (which inherited the "title" in 2003 from Henhouse Henery when its credits were restored for its own DVD release) - Walky Talky Hawky (from 1946), on the other hand, exists only as a Blue Ribbon reissue. On television, however, for unknown reasons, the Blue Ribbon reissue still airs. However, the closing was kept for the reissue but television has the 1995 dubbed version. Plot summary Sylvester is sneaking to the doghouse in a bush. He tries to steal a bone outside the doghouse, but the Barnyard Dawg grabs the paw and looks inside the bush to see Sylvester with a flower in his mouth and several more flowers on his head. After Sylvester deliberately whacks Barnyard Dawg on the head with his dog food dish, Barnyard Dawg gives chase and chases Sylvester on the wall and jumps over a branch, only to get caught by the leash and hangs from the branch by the leash. Sylvester is about to cut the leash with an axe, but Foghorn grabs the blade and Sylvester whacks too hard and vibrates as he goes by the fire wood, and the branch breaks and Barnyard Dawg gets hit on the head and walks off. Foghorn lectures Sylvester to "Bury the hatchet-I say bury the hatchet, but not in anyone's head, boy!" when Sylvester is trying to speak, Sylvester angrily yells "Ah, SHUT UP!" and whacks Foghorn on the head with the bladeless axe and leaves as Foghorn sees stars and still holds the blade. Henery says to the audience "I'm not sure, but this might be a chicken." and drags him as Foghorn asks "What's the gag-I say what's the gag son? GAG that is! Where are we taking me, boy? Speak up!". after Henery tells Foghorn that he (Foghorn) is a chicken, Foghorn convinces Henery that Sylvester is a chicken. Foghorn sticks Henery in an egg and places it under Sylvester. Sylvester wakes up, thinking he's laid the egg and has become a mother, sings "Rock A Bye Baby" to it then hides the egg when he sees Foghorn coming and Foghorn congratulates Sylvester for laying the egg and Sylvester realizes that "HEY, Tom Cats can't be Mothers! Cats don't lay eggs! There's something screwy here!" and attempts to detach himself from this egg that suddenly follows him and attaches itself to him and that literally scares Sylvester out of his wits when he thinks the egg is possessed by a ghost. He runs from it and literally does all sorts of things...including running into the dog house belonging to the Barnyard Dawg. The dog pulls the cat out and stomps all over him and walks off. Henery, still in the egg, runs into the dog, which causes the dog to trip and fall over. The dog looks at the egg and then at the camera and ponders "I just takes a step and presto, I lays an egg!". the scene fades to a mother duck, with her ducklings, who says to herself "Presto, and he lays an egg. And to think for fifteen years, I've been doing it the hardway." The egg/Henery finally discovers Sylvester's hiding spot (a barrel), and he starts to attach himself to Sylvester's skin. Reaching a breaking point, Sylvester comes close to literally smashing the egg with a mallet...just as the egg is about to be smashed, Henery pops out and hollers "STOP!!" to which Sylvester, in a classic scene, literally yanks his head up and down by his ears and grabs his tail and literally yanks on it, causing his head to literally pop up and down on his shoulders because he himself thinks he's crazy. Henery, seeing enough, clobbers Sylvester with a mallet and drags him off. Sylvester wakes up and asks "Say, what's the big idea?!" and Henery warns the "chicken" to not give him any trouble and Sylvester realizes that he's been part of a trick and he leaps up and shows Henery that the actual chicken, "A ROOSTER in fact!", is Foghorn himself. "Rooster? If I'm a rooster-I say if I'm a rooster, I hope to be struck by-" bellows an offended Foghorn, but is interrupted when he almost literally gets struck by lightning and decides "Well, let's put it in another way. WAY that is" and an argument arises between Sylvester, Foghorn, and the Dog as they accuse each other of misleading Henery Hawk. Finally, Henery decides the only way to settle the matter is to see who crows at dawn, and they all agree with an "OKAY!" with Foghorn alone "OKAY,THAT IS!". The scene fades and it's dawn the next morning...a sun pops up...and rooster crowing is heard...but from who? Sylvester has his mouth open because he typically always has his mouth open, looking dumbfounded...but Barnyard Dawg thinks Sylvester is crowing and walks off after hearing enough and Henery mistakes this for the sound of the rooster and he drags Sylvester away. The scene ends with Foghorn crowing...out the side of his mouth...holding up a how-to book on ventriloquism. Foghorn tells the audience "You gotta-I say you gotta keep on your toes. TOES that is!". Censorship *When this cartoon aired on The WB television network, the part where Barnyard Dawg is hanging from a tree branch by his leash and Sylvester, armed with an axe, is about to swing it at him, was cut.http://looney.goldenagecartoons.com/ltcuts/ltcutsc.html The cartoon jumps from Barnyard Dawg chasing Sylvester to Foghorn telling Sylvester, "Let's bury the hatchet, but not in anyone's head". Trivia * Foghorn's line "Open the Window, Richard," when he puts Henery in the false egg, may be a reference to a popular 1947 song.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_the_Door%2C_Richard * This is Sylvester's first appearance in a Robert McKimson-directed cartoon, and Sylvester's 2nd appearance in the Looney Tunes series. * On the original issue, there is a short sequence where Henery Hawk says "I'm a chickenhawk and I'm gonna get me a chicken today! I am so!" just before the opening credits. This sequence has been cut when reissued as a Blue Ribbon Merrie Melody. This sequence has been restored when the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 6 DVD release came out with this cartoon. * This cartoon was reissued as a Blue Ribbon Merrie Melody during the 1954-1955 season, and original closing and music was kept on the reissue. However, the Turner "dubbed version" erroneously replaces the end title card and ending music to those of Merrie Melodies. Recent airings of this cartoon on Cartoon Network and Boomerang since 2011 had corrected the problem by restoring the original ending music (albeit still using the Merrie Melodies dubbed version end card intact). Gallery Crowing pains-PD Looney Tunes- Sylvester the Cat.png Crowing pains-PD Looney Tunes- sylvester + foghorn.png Crowng pains.jpg|Blue Ribbon Re-Issue Titles Wb-lc-crowingpains2-16x20-framed-sm 1.jpg|Lobby Card References Category:Foghorn Leghorn Cartoons Category:Sylvester Cartoons Category:Barnyard Dawg Cartoons Category:Henery Hawk Cartoons Category:Shorts Category:1947 Category:Looney Tunes Shorts Category:Blue Ribbon reissues Category:Cartoons directed by Robert McKimson Category:Cartoons with music by Carl W. Stalling Category:Cartoons written by Warren Foster Category:Cartoons animated by Manny Gould Category:Cartoons animated by Charles McKimson Category:Cartoons animated by John Carey Category:Cartoons animated by Izzy Ellis Category:Cartoons with layouts by Cornett Wood Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Richard H. Thomas Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Robert C. Bruce Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc Category:Cartoons produced by Eddie Selzer